–Informant Info–

Nationality: American

Age: 56

Occupation: Housewife

Residence: Pheonix, Ariozna

Date of Performance/Collection: 2022

Primary Language: English

Other Language(s): N/A

(Notes-The informant will be referred to as HW and the interviewer as K)

Background info: MW is a mother of 2 who grew up in Pacific Grove, northern California, and now resides in Pheonix, Arizona.

K: Ok so what’s the title and where did you hear it? And what’s the uh…context for the performance? Like what circumstances was it told

HW: It doesn’t really have a title, just the ghost of highway 1 because uh…whenever you drive past highway 1 someone would tell the story, mainly on the school bus. That’s where I always heard it from, like kids telling other kids to scare them.

K: Ok, go ahead! It’s fine if its only like 2 sentences

HW: Yeah, I mean, it goes that uh a woman got hit by a car and died on this little outstretch of Highway 1 that’s not even really used anymore cuz a new uh…exit was built that had better access to Monterey (a major town in this area). So the only people that used it were locals, but sometimes a non-local would get lost and see her standing on the edge of the road and uh pick her up. There were 2 major uh…versions I guess to what she would do after. She would either like take control of the car and crash it or if you were a woman driving alone she would uh like…bless you in a sense? Like your car would drive better and you wouldn’t hit traffic and narrowly avoid getting hit kind of a thing.

K: Wow, that’s really interesting, so she was kind to women?

HW: In one version yea, but only if you were alone or with another woman. If it was a straight uh couple the car would crash. Her hatred for men was stronger than her love for women *laughter*

Interpretation:
This is actually really interesting because of how traditional this story is. I know I’ve heard the same type of story, about a woman dying by getting hit by a car and becoming a ghost hitchhiker. It’s a very popular story in common lore around the world I think. This just reinforces my belief that every kid seems to have their own version of the story. It is interesting how the informant noted that this part of the road isn’t a major part anymore, and is only really used by locals and that non-locals were really the only ones to stop and pick her up. Its as if this is a very well-known, and believed story rather than a story told on the bus to scare other kids.